The Only Way to Get to Brilliance is through Mediocrity

It's an age old fight between teacher and student... 

To push through mediocrity to get to brilliance.

The Berggruen Klee Collection, 1987

As a fine arts teacher, I am probably more aware of this constant struggle than the typical teacher of core content. To be honest, while teaching Economics, I was not concerned with pushing my students to forge their own path and to become the next great economist.  My interest was getting the students to pass the mandated tests, get their credit and to graduate. While not a noble goal, it was a necessary one.

However, the fine arts require teachers to strive for the noble goals. 

Being a mediocre artist, musician, singer, dancer or performer isn't enough. Being mediocre won't get you a college scholarship, a first place or even a job in the chosen field. The world is full of mediocre artists that failed to fulfill their potential who are now using their skills and talents in other career paths. And thank goodness for that, cause without creative, collaborative, out-of-the-box thinkers in all careers, we would be IN TROUBLE!! But that's a post for a different day...

by Zhang Xiaogang

Anyway, over the last week or so, I have had a number of conversations with students about the type of art they love creating.  If you know any emerging artists 22 years of age and younger, you can guess what is said.. 

I have to force myself to not roll my eyes. 

And since it's a new school year I have a whole new crop of art students. In fact, I have double the number of art 2 students than I have ever had. My classes are maxed out and twice during the day I run concurrent advanced classes while also teaching art 2.

With over 50 students that have chosen art to be their path to graduation via the state "endorsement" track, I am daily fighting with my Art 2-4 students to push past mediocrity and find their own brilliance.

And that's not an easy task.

But I use myself as an example. I don't hide my mediocrity from my students. Here is what I have learned about myself. These lessons were not easy and I don't list them now flippantly!

1. I am a mediocre actress.

I was cast as Juliet in college.  It wasn't due to talent or passion.. I fit the dress. This was probably one of the hardest lessons to learn. I LOVE theatre. I have two degrees in theatre... but this has not made me a brilliant actress. 

What I am brilliant at in theatre is Managing. I am hands-down one of the best stage or house managers around.  I learned that my gifts could be used and honed in this part of the theatre.


2.  I am a mediocre artist.

I love the visual arts. The enduring memories of my childhood revolve around the world of commercial art. I love to dabble in all art forms. 

I can mimic the best painters. 
I can copy to coolest contemporary artists. 

But that does not make me a brilliant painter or artist.

I love printmaking. I'll even say that I am good at printmaking.. but not brilliant.

But I am brilliant at motivating people to work hard
 and to manage their fear.

Everyday I work with students and push them beyond their comfort zone to do bigger and better work than they thought possible.

It's a fight. Every. Single. Day.

Mediocrity doesn't want to be replaced with the unknown.

Mediocrity likes being in charge. 

Mediocrity strives for the status quo.

But the only way to get to Brilliance is through Mediocrity.

Mediocrity isn't a bad thing. In fact, I believe it is a good and healthy thing.. as long as that is not the destination. For when Mediocrity is achieved, Brilliance is possible.

So welcome to that place that comes after mediocrity... it's gonna be an interesting journey.

I LOVE Style By Katy

As a creative artsy person it isn't easy to say this.. but I hate home decorating. I love the results of a nice home design, I just roll my eyes at the work. I just am not patient and and don't enjoy the process of picking out the stuff to make a room look nice. 

This stems from the fact that I never like the results and it seems like I always end up buying the wrong color, style, or whatever 15 times before I get to the right thing. So I don't. I end up with a room that isn't finished or is "finished" badly and live with it.

On the flip side, my sister Katy LOVES home decorating. She designed the decor of my old house and the results were stunning. But she has been uber busy with her children and life and work so I didn't want to bother her with my pathetic decorating needs.

But those days are OVER! Katy is now staying home with her young children and has started a home based business using her love of decorating and her savvy shopping skills. YES!!!

The process was amazingly easy. 

Here are some pictures of our first project together.

Take pictures of the space. I started with our hall bathroom. It is an eyesore with good bones.

I gave her my parameters. The fixtures couldn't be changed, the flooring is going to be changed in a couple of months to a dark ash grey color and I really wanted to keep the canvas that I liked so the colors needed to work with that.

After asking my preference on a few items, she sent me a design board along with all of the links to purchase the items from Etsy, Target and Lowe's. It was soo easy!

And so I began. Almost immediately I could see the paint was going to transform the room.

When I got to the new little shelves, I wasn't sure where to put them, so I sent Katy the picture with the options and she replied.

Done.

And while I loved the print that she suggested in the first place, I ended up getting another one that she picked out as an alternate because a different Etsy store was having a 20% off sale!

And there you have my hall bath makeover. 

Here is my spending summary:

Painting supplies for the walls, the cabinets (I went ahead and did a refresher of them since I was painting..) and the mirror: $55.

Soft Goods (including towels, bath mat, shower curtain, liner: $100

Hardware (shower rod, shelves) $40

Window shade: $20 

Accessories: $30

Total: $245 plus the $100 design board

Would I do it again if she wasn't my sister? YES!! I already have.

I can't wait to show you Lexi's bedroom. It is AMAZING!!

And here is my take-away... while it's hard to spend $100 on a design board that you can't actually use in your decorating. It is totally worth it! I have spent way more money on mistake decorating purchases over the years! A decent quality shower curtain is easily $40 and it doesn't matter the quality if it looks bad in the room!

So yeah, I'm sold.

Katy,I am so proud of you and what you are doing!

You can contact her at info.stylebykaty@gmail.com to start your own home decorating project.

I found freedom and grace in Weight Watchers

I rejoined Weight Watchers.. again.

The last month or so I have really been battling a head game and I while I needed the consistency and accountability of tracking my food, what I saw yesterday is that I needed the freedom and grace more.

I know. FREEDOM and GRACE while tracking food??? 

Yep.

Here is why. When I'm just doing my thing and going with the flow, unless I am hard core shake in the morning, and totally healthy choices for lunch and dinner, in my mind, I have failed on the food choices that day. I start beating myself up over the cookie(s) that I ate or the whatever and I immediately go into a negative head space.

With Weight Watchers, I don't do that. I track my food and at the end of the day when I sit down with my glass of Pinot Grigio (4 points) I enjoy it.

So yes, I am back on the Weight Watchers wagon. I really like the updated app and options. I totally think that the WW mindset would be great for those that want to gain weight as well as for those that want to lose/maintain weight. Tracking food can be overwhelming and for people like me with obsessive personalities, counting calories can be addictive and push us into a negative head space as we use calories as a means of control. not good.

Here is a screenshot from my dashboard. With the latest WW update I get more points each day even though I weigh the same that I did in January when I deleted the app from my phone! I like more points. :) 

I also really like the updated activity log. I am a very active person and I never felt like the old activity counter truly recorded my daily life. But for example yesterday, I shoveled and hauled dirt around the pool for a long time. I recorded 65 minutes of hard labor and earned 16 points for my efforts. I like that!  I set my goal to earn 55 FitPoints each week. I figure that is a very doable goal for me. Even with a stress fracture on my left foot and no running. (bummer, but soon I hope!)

And there you have it. 

And in case you were wondering, yes I am still using Isagenix products. The IsaLean Shake is 7 points and that is a lot for me for breakfast, but totally worth it as I feel good and stay full during the morning. In fact, if I wanted to do Isagenix hardcore with Weight Watchers, I totally could as a shake for breakfast and lunch with healthy snacks during the day would leave me with more than enough points to have a quality evening meal. 

So there you have it. 

I'll keep you posted on the journey. For now, I'm going to go enjoy my cup of coffee with my 2point creamer. Yes, that is a splurge I will take every time!

Oh, and want to know what my goal is? To drop my body fat percentage by 7%. yep. Sounds crazy doesn't it.  But, my body fat percentage is too high. yuck. And it lives on my abdomen, thighs and the underside of my arms.  A 7% drop won't even put me into the "fitness" category for body fat.. it will just be in the middle of the acceptable range! OUCH! 

In order to lose the body fat I know that I will lose some on the scale too, but that isn't my motivation this time around. I'm not worried about what the scale says, nor am I interested in dropping clothes sizes. I really like my size 6. I just want to be healthy.

Thanks for joining me on this path.

Art, Theatre and Photography Camp 2016. Done!

I love Art, Theatre and Photography Camp. 

It is a hard four days, but so worth it! The kids have a great time and the parents are always amazed at what we are able to produce from the campers in such a short amount of time.

This year's theme was "Broadway Battle."

We had 116 campers spread out over a morning session and an afternoon session. That is a LOT of kids. Especially when close to 30 of those kids are 3 and 4 years old! 

We also have a dozen or more teenage volunteers. We couldn't run the program without them, but they add a level of "drama" to the camp as well. :)

Here is a panorama right before we started the production. All of those orange shirts... yeah, that's a lot of bodies to manage!

Over the four days, I probably took close to a thousand pictures. No kidding.

Below are a few of the highlights from the art portion of camp!

I LOVED working with the kids on their paintings. Given that they had only about 45 minutes total to work on them, I think they did great! Their paintings were done over three days.

(Sidenote.. Bleeding Tissue paper is the WAY TO GO if you want a really cool, cheap and easy background for a watercolor painting!)

We also screenprinted. Of course we did. I guess that's my signature event! It is messy and crazy and the kids LOVE it.

Look at Kylie's concentration. The memories.

And how can Lexi be this big? 

They also made scratch art. One of the workers mentioned that he couldn't believe that the kids were willingly without a fuss painting black over their drawings and "ruining" them. I explained that the kids have learned over the years to go with the flow! 

(Sidenote.. making your own scratch art is fun and messy. scratching off the black is REALLY messy..)

We also did weaving. I changed to weaving with pipe cleaners this year. Less mess. And they can create a 3d weaving project. It was really fun!

And there you have it.

Another year complete. My take away this year is the realization that one of my goals for the kids is the gift of artistic surprise and to be willing to experience new things. My goal each year is to push the campers out of their comfort zone and force them in a fun way to try new things. Even if it means utter failure in a project. I try to get them to understand that the PROCESS is the goal, NOT the product!

This isn't an easy task. These kids expect their work to be perfect. They are not used to being told that "failure" is actually a win. And this is the reason we have to have events like this camp. So much of our kids lives are wrapped up in "doing things right" and working toward a perfect product. This mindset ends up freezing the kids mid-project and I have to work with them to just keep going. You would not believe how many projects are thrown in the trash as soon as camp is over, not by the parents, but by the kids. Sadly, they have bought into the lie that unless it is perfect, they don't want it. And I'm talking about 4 year olds!! Ouch.

So my gift to the campers is the opportunity to explore and create in a safe place that is not tied to a test a grade or an expectation. My mantra that I say over and over is the only failure is refusing to try.

And I know it's working. You just have to look at these kids faces!

Want to see more photos? Check us out on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/artandtheatrecamp/

My Runniversary

Another Healthy Lifestyle and Runniversary!

In honor of my journey.. I like to look back and see the consistency and dedication to making myself a priority in the craziness of life.

In May of 2012 I decided that enough was enough, but it took me a month to get in the right mind frame for a complete lifestyle overhaul. I consider the Tuesday after Memorial Day to be my anniversary of a healthy life!

May 29 2012

• Weight.. over 170 maybe 180... 
• Clothing Size: 14/16 pants, large/xlarge shirt
• 1.96 miles at a 14:17 pace.

May 27 2013

• Weight:  145
• Clothing Size: 6/8 pants, medium shirt
• 4.69 miles at 11:06 pace.

May 24 2014

• Weight: 143
• Clothing Size: 6 pants, medium shirt 
• 4.3 miles at 10:46.

May 25 2015

• Weight: 140
• Clothing Size: 6 pants, medium shirt
• 4.5 miles at a 9:50 pace. 

May 28-31 2016

• Weight: 137
• Clothing Size: 4-6 pants, small shirt
• Saturday: 9 miles at an 11:05 easy pace
• Sunday:  11 miles on the bike and 30 minutes of heavy weight training
• Tuesday: 3.14 miles at a 10:07 pace

I have to remind myself is that the difference between last year's pace and this year's pace is negligible due to the humidity and that I am stronger and leaner than I have ever been. Even when I was "skinnier" (in high school and college) I was starving myself and had little muscle tone.

My goals for this year? I'd like to lose another 10 pounds and I'd like to run a 25 minute 5k. I guess the question is, do I want it bad enough?